Performing, no less. The mad Evanstonian -- one of the most visceral singer-songwriters I've encountered in this city -- stepped onto a bare stage during the South by Southwest music festival in 2012 in Austin, Texas, nearly bare-assed, wearing only socks and boxer briefs. The rest of him was just the same -- wild eyes, spasmodic moves, an unnerving earnestness.

Alt-rock anti-heroes the Replacements famously ended their decade-long run July 4, 1991, during a sad gig at none other than Taste of Chicago. But later this year, some form of the band is reuniting for at least three Riot Fest appearances -- including Chicago.

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http://blogs.suntimes.com/music/2013/06/the_replacements_to_reunite_at_riot_fest.htmlReplacementsRiot FestThu, 13 Jun 2013 10:07:31 -0600Music makes the best of Chicago summer street festsChicago's summers are the best anywhere -- meteorologically, sure, but also because of the plethora of neighborhood street festivals practically every weekend.

The food, the beer, the curious crafts and arresting art -- come for all of that, but stay for the music. Many of this summer's street fests are can't-miss bargains when factoring in their concert lineups.

Many years ago, Mark Brown -- not our Mark Brown, a different journalist (go figure, I've known four Mark Browns in this business) -- signed off from his post as pop music critic at California's Orange County Register with a column describing something of an epiphany he had after being konked in the head with a shoe thrown from the stage by the singer for Candlebox.

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http://blogs.suntimes.com/music/2013/06/goodbye_chicago_the_other_shoe.htmlWed, 12 Jun 2013 17:00:00 -0600Kanye West debuts more 'Yeezus' tracks in concertThe Kanye West hysteria machine is cranking up once again and, thanks to a new gig last night, new cell videos are rolling in.

Ahead of a typically hotly anticipated new album, "Yeezus," out next week, the Chicago rapper has been making a few concert appearances while, surprisingly, refraining from leaking the new tracks. But at Sunday's Governor's Ball concert in New York City, West unveiled several new songs and -- of course -- ranted a bit about the biz.

Most Americans didn't understand a word of "Gangnam Style," yet we clicked PSY's online hit up to a billion views. Likewise, the hundreds of other K-pop stars look to the model of Latin music as an example of crossover magic in America. The Billboard charts, too, are not averse to the occasional or partial non-English hit ("Alles klar, Herr Kommissar?").

So who's to say the new album out now, "Scott & Rivers" -- a collaboration between Chicago's Scott Murphy and Weezer's Rivers Cuomo -- won't succeed on its own, half-Japanese merits?

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http://blogs.suntimes.com/music/2013/06/scott_murphy_ and_rivers_cuomo_allister_weezer_jpop.htmlAllisterJ-popRivers CuomoScott MurphyWeezerThu, 06 Jun 2013 12:00:00 -0600Chicago Blues Festival 2013: Six slots to seeFor its 30th incarnation in the city parks, the Chicago Blues Festival is looking to its roots. Themed "Rollin' Up the River," the 2013 blues fest casts an eye at the music's origins in the Mississippi delta -- and the great migration that brought so many of its pioneer musicians north to the Chicago clubs.

Friday morning, veteran guitarist Robert Walker will emcee a panel discussion about the Mississippi Blues Trail -- the stretch of Southern road known as "the blues highway" -- featuring Allison Washington, representative of the trail from the Mississippi Development Authority; writer and producer Jim O'Neal; and "Highway 61" radio host Scott Barretta. Let 'em school you at 11:30 a.m. Friday on the festival's Mississippi Juke Joint Stage in Grant Park.

Beyond that, the fest features the usual hours and hours of free music over four days on stages throughout Millennium Park tonight -- where Chicago's formidable Shemekia Copeland performs with fawned-over teenage guitarist Quinn Sullivan -- and Grant Park on Friday through Sunday.

Lollapalooza after-parties deliver extra musical bang for either those who missed the chance to get festival tickets or those festivalgoers who simply cannot stop rocking when Grant Park goes dark.

The full slate of official post-fest, indoor concerts was announced this morning. The schedule -- on sale at 10 a.m. Friday here -- spotlights several artists with better venues and available time than they're getting in the sun-baked mud during Lollapalooza, Aug. 2-4.

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http://blogs.suntimes.com/music/2013/06/lolla_after.htmlLollapaloozaTue, 04 Jun 2013 12:00:00 -0600Tonight's guest with the Rolling Stones: Taylor SwiftThroughout these 50th anniversary concerts, one slot in the Rolling Stones' set list has been a revolving door for some high-profile guests. Last week, singer Mick Jagger welcomed blues guitarist Taj Mahal for a boogie-down run through "Six Days on the Road" during the band's first of three shows at Chicago's United Center. Friday night it was Sheryl Crow joining Jagger for "All Down the Line."

The guest for tonight's final Chicago show has been announced early: Taylor Swift.

Buddy Guy always has been generous in sharing his blues-guitar spotlight with up-and-comers. When he brought 8-year-old Quinn Sullivan onto a festival stage, however, his trademark smile froze in astonishment.

"I had to unplug his amplifier to make sure it was him," Guy said after the 2007 show. "I'm like, 'There's no way in the world you can play these notes. He was hitting Eric Clapton, he was hitting me, Stevie, Jimi Hendrix. I couldn't even play a radio when I was seven or eight years old! Players like him come along once in a lifetime. I said, 'I need to let the world know about you.'"

He's done just that, and the world is finding out about this impressive young guitar phenom.

Late last year, on the occasion of their 50th anniversary concerts in London and New York, I wrote of a Rolling Stones revelation. No more would I sneer at the batty old boomers and advise them to finally, at long last, for the love of all that's holy, please retire. Soldiering on as raucous rock 'n' rollers well into their unimagined, unnerving age, I said, could be their last, great rebellious act.

Emerging from Tuesday night's concert -- the first of three this week at Chicago's United Center, continuing Friday and Monday -- I remain convinced. The Stones are a bit worn and predictable, but they should absolutely rock until they drop.

But don't rack up so many highway or air miles: Chicago photographer Paul Natkin is showing off his photos of the Stones and more in a career retrospective in the suburbs.

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http://blogs.suntimes.com/music/2013/05/rolling_stones_photos_shutter_to_think_paul_natkin_elmhurst.htmlPaul NatkinRolling StonesTue, 28 May 2013 11:19:32 -0600Review: John Fogerty, 'Wrote a Song for Everyone'John Fogerty, "Wrote a Song for Everyone" (Vanguard) -- Many artists could benefit from the kind of legal troubles that beset John Fogerty. For nearly a decade, during a protracted battle with his former record label, Fogerty refused to perform his old Credence Clearwater Revival songs. But he emerged from the dispute with a reinvigorated legacy, welcomed by a fanbase positively salivating for a catalog whose legend had appreciated considerably. Ever since, Fogerty has been trying -- not always successfully -- to reintegrate that golden '60s past with whatever occasionally moves him in the present.]]>http://blogs.suntimes.com/music/2013/05/review_john_fogerty_wrote_a_song_for_everyone.html
http://blogs.suntimes.com/music/2013/05/review_john_fogerty_wrote_a_song_for_everyone.htmlCredence Clearwater RevivalJohn FogertyMon, 27 May 2013 12:00:00 -0600Review: Daft Punk, 'Random Access Memories'Daft Punk, "Random Access Memories" (Columbia) -- In 1984, before most of us owned a personal computer, novelist William Gibson coined the word "cyberspace." His spatial concept of a digital functionality -- a place that one jacks into -- set the tone for two decades of understanding about virtuality as an in-the-box idea and seeded pop culture for everything through "The Matrix." In his 2007 novel, Spook Country, however, Gibson killed off his own concept. Cyberspace is a metaphorical illusion, he concluded as he observed the ubiquitous, out-of-the-box computing functions that now pervade everyday reality. "There isn't any cyberspace, is there?" considers one character. "There never was, if you want to look at it that way. It was a way we had of looking where we were headed, a direction."

Consider the acronym EDM and all its various cumbersome and hyphenated forbearers as music's "cyberspace," and consider Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories" as the concept's command-Q keystroke.